Oil sands are plentiful, relatively nearby, and come from a trusted friend and neighbor—Canada. But how do we get all of this oil to U.S. markets?

Pipelines. Since the United States and Canada share such a long and secure land border, and since pipelines are among the safest ways to transport liquid commodities, pipelines are a major way to transport oil to the U.S. from our neighbors to the north. While different pipelines systems crisscross both the United States and Canada, for oil sands crude transport there are two primary systems to consider—Keystone and Enbridge.

Click here for a great video on the Keystone Pipeline System. 

Keystone Pipeline System

The Keystone Pipeline System includes the Keystone Pipeline, Keystone Cushing, and Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project (also knows as the Keystone XL Project).

• Phase I of the Keystone Pipeline System focused on the conversion of natural gas pipelines and the building of new pipelines to bring oil sands crude directly from Canada to the Midwest market.
• Phase II (Keystone Cushing)—which is under construction—extends the Keystone Pipeline, taking it from Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma, a major oil processing and transport center.
• The Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project (Keystone XL) would traverse 1,500 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, through Saskatchewan, and states like Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. In Oklahoma, it will merge with parts of the Cushing line and then travel through Oklahoma and Texas, ending in the Houston/Nederland/Port Arthur area of Texas.

Up to 25 percent of the Keystone XL pipeline will be used to transport domestic crude oil from Montana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

Currently, the Keystone Pipeline System has a capacity of 590,000 barrels a day. The completion of the Keystone XL Gulf Coast expansion project will increase this capacity by 500,000 barrels a day to nearly 1.1 million barrels a day.

But only if the U.S. State Department gives its approval to the project. A final decision by the State Department is expected in 2011. Click here to visit the State Department’s Keystone XL pipeline website.

Enbridge Pipeline System

The Enbridge liquid pipelines system (which does not include their gas and offshore pipelines), stretches from far Northern Canada to the Great Lakes, the U.S. Midwest, and all the way down to Oklahoma. Enbridge is a leading pipeline operator for both the Canadian oil sands region and the Bakken formation in Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan. Expansion of their capacity in both areas is underway.

Canada’s largest crude oil transporter, Enbridge has roughly 15,000 miles of crude oil pipeline, which can deliver an average of more than 2 million barrels of crude oil and other liquids on a daily basis.

Enbridge exports 65 percent of oil from Western Canada—13 percent of daily crude oil imports to the United States. In fact, on “any single day, Enbridge is the largest single conduit of oil into the U.S.,” moving “close to 100 separate commodities, including more than 100 types of refined products.”